M(allthevowels)H

Ahh! Congratulations! Also, I love the idea of buying the hoodie as a first sign of commitment and wish I'd thought of that.

Yes! Congrats! They're lucky to have you.

Just officially declined Rice. I hope that luscious stipend flows to someone else waiting here.

Congratulations! I will also very likely be heading south in the fall, so here's to us escaping this snow finally!

Congrats to you both!

@Warelin Rice had an increase after initial offers, but I'll double check the form. I have a question, how - or should - we log financial offers that were not the standard? Is it worthwhile to be aware of special grants or fellowships that the programs offer, or would it be too confusing?

Congratulations on making your decision!

@clinamen @melian517 My people! I'd narrowed it down to three with an ever shifting rank until last week. Now I'm 80% sure it's two, but don't ask me which one is in the lead. God help me if I get off of a waitlist.

Well, Congrats! Even if it doesn't actually matter, at least it's nice to know.

Everything @Warelin and @jrockford27 said, but I would add that I wouldn't stress about retaking the GRE with a 164 verbal and 4.5. Most of your effort should be focused on researching schools that fit well with your interests, as that seems to have been the most important factor in acceptance.

!! A belated congratulations to you both!

Oooo exciting! Fingers crossed!

Congratulations!!

Yes!! Congratulations!!

That seems low! And given the schools you were accepted to, a little surprising. I would definitely email for more, and stress that you are coming from 2000 miles away (or whatever) and so that amount really isn't feasible. I've had to negotiate for a few things for the visits, and overall each school has been really understanding.

I'm going to echo @immanentfields here. I would do the MFA first. 100%. I've been able to palate cleanse from academic writing by working on creative writing in a way that I wouldn't have done as thoughtfully pre-MFA - and I was one of those obnoxious writers who thought they were already the kind of writer they wanted to be when they entered the MFA. (I was wrong). The PhD pays out - your disseration, your degree - at five years, give or take, after beginning the program. An MFA is less production oriented (even at Iowa, the more production oriented of the MFAs) and so "payoff" is kind of an amorphous thing that stretches years long and evolves with time. That's the journey that I would want to start sooner because barring being Justin Torres or Garth Greenwell - who both went to Iowa, if I recall - it can take years and years for that experience to resolve into the kind of novel/chapbook/memoir you want to present to the world. Those years can run simultaneously with the PhD, if you do the MFA first. To put it in caveman terms, an MFA helps you make better art. An MFA first means you'll have been making better art for longer, increasing the chance of success. An MFA from Iowa means when you make that better art, you'll have channels in which to distribute it.

This is almost exactly what I did! My BA was a creative writing emphasis, and my masters was an MFA with a fiction concentration. I haven't started yet either so I can't speak to how the actual transition will go. But to quell the impostor syndrome for my upcoming school visits I've been arming myself with reading. I'm finishing up Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters because at one of my visits I'll be attending a seminar on a similar topic. I hope to have this book on antebellum posthumanism finished before I have to sit down with the person who wrote it. I AM NOT SAYING THIS IS NECESSARY! Impostor syndrome is just lying whispers, and if you can just ignore them, do that instead. I'm just saying this has helped me reassure myself that I am on slightly more level footing. I'll also likely be making use of the theory recommendations in the Summer Reading thread for the same purpose.

Yay! Congratulations!

You should go! It's way less boring than the other tourist-y stuff people make you do! (If I have to see the Liberty Bell one more time I'm gonna scream). I would also like to totally recommend the lantern ghost tours in Old City. It's another thing people visiting always want to do, but it doesn't suck (It's more fun historical anecdotes than scary ghosts).

Congrats!! Fingers crossed for you!

It's totally Grandpa friendly! During the summer, at least haha (read: when it's not a banging haunted house). It has a very serious museum set up, and Steve Buscemi does the audiotour. My tiny niece liked it mostly for the stories of the dog inmate, but there is a little something for everyone. Also, it's one of the easier places to find parking in the city if you come during the day. (Though FYI: they are pretty up front about the prison industrial complex needing to end and there's discourse about the US's incarceration rate vs other countries, so if there's someone whose politics that might offended, it could get awkward.)

Congratulations!

Congrats!! That's an excellent offer from Howard. Plus, every time I turn on my TV Chadwick Boseman is on and he's an alumni so I think that's a sign.

Congratulations on being officially Harvard bound! Since you've already got your job settled and your future housing rolling, (not surprising - I knew from the start you were an overachiever from your spreadsheets haha) you can focus all of your energy on the roadtrip itinerary. Might I suggest a detour into Philadelphia? Come for our history, stay for our mostly-not-haunted prisons.

Like @clinamen I'm relying on visits to help me make this decision between Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, and Rice. (though any advice or input in the meantime would be appreciated. Right now I wake up favoring a different school on any given day.)